Transformation at the Intersection of Retail and Services: A Conversation with Liz Allison

Where does true retail innovation happen today? According to Liz Allison, CEO of luxury salon and spa brand Tricoci, it's happening at the intersection of experience and commerce.

Liz's remarkable journey from JCPenney retail trainee to scaling a billion-dollar Sephora business to transforming Neiman Marcus offers a masterclass in retail evolution. Throughout our conversation, she shares candid insights about pivotal career moments that shaped her leadership approach - including the time she dropped her lunch tray during a heated debate with her business partner in the JCPenney cafeteria!

What stands out is how Liz has harnessed the power of experiential retail at Tricoci. By integrating beauty services with product sales, her team achieves retail attachment rates of 50% (compared to the industry standard of just 10%). 

Beyond business strategy, Liz offers refreshing perspectives on leadership - from adapting her extroverted style to make space for introverted team members to helping high-performers advance their careers (even when that means leaving the company). Her approach builds lasting relationships that extend far beyond any single organization.

As traditional retail faces disruption with thousands of stores closing this year alone, Liz's hybrid service-retail model offers a compelling path forward. The future belongs to those who can create emotional connections through personalized experiences while delivering products that resonate.

Ready to make retail cool again? Listen now and discover how merging service with commerce might just be the key to retail's next renaissance.

Liz Allison's Bio
Elizabeth (Liz) Allison is the Chief Executive Officer of Tricoci, a premier luxury salon and spa brand with 13 full-service locations across the Chicagoland area. Under her leadership, Tricoci offers elevated hair, skin, body, and nail services, supported by a team of over 1,000 expert beauty and wellness professionals serving nearly 200,000 active clients. Liz is dedicated to evolving the core business and driving growth through strategic transformation, while also overseeing the expansion of the brand's innovative beauty consumer products portfolio.

Before joining Tricoci, Liz was the President of Milan Laser Hair Removal, where she played a key role in scaling the business to become the country's largest laser hair removal company. She also served as the Chief Transformation Officer at Neiman Marcus Group (NMG), leading the company's luxury reinvention and managing NMG's minority investment and strategic partnership with the ultra-luxury re-commerce company FASHIONPHILE, where she also served as a board member. Additionally, Liz held numerous senior executive positions at JCPenney, including Senior Vice President of Sephora, and led the company's billion-dollar e-commerce business.

Liz graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and currently serves on the Tippie College of Business Administration's Marketing Institute Advisory Board. She is a former Advisory Board Member for Women in Retail and was honored with the Top Women in Retail award in 2020.

To check out Tricoci's latest brand launch:
https://nutrire.com/